Under Lula, INSS ignored the CGU's opinion and renewed its agreement with the entity that championed discounts.

In testimony to the INSS Joint Parliamentary Inquiry Committee (CPMI) this Thursday (4), civil servant Eliane Viegas Mota, director of Social Security and Benefits Audit at the Comptroller General's Office (CGU), confirmed that the INSS ignored the Comptroller's Office's recommendations on the renewal of a Technical Cooperation Agreement (ACT) between the institute and the National Confederation of Agricultural Workers (Contag), related to associative discounts considered illegal.

The agreement, according to Eliane, dates back to the 1990s and remains active to this day. The entity is considered one of the largest fundraisers. Data from the CGU indicates that Contag collected R$3.47 billion in automatic deductions from retirement and pensions. According to the official, the amount is underestimated and could reach R$3.6 billion.

"It is important to highlight that the warnings presented by the Specialized Federal Prosecutor's Office to the INSS, especially those reporting the existence of several lawsuits for compensation for material damages by the Union, do not appear to have been taken into account," said Eliane, reading an excerpt from the report presented by the CGU on the illegal discounts.

She added: “In this context, the renewal of Contag's ACT on August 27, 2024, stands out, whose opinion of the federal prosecutors - who are against formalizing the aforementioned pact - was reformed by order of the attorney general of the INSS, who believes that the signature is reasonable, as it is an entity that has had an ACT for almost 30 years.”

Although the CGU has been monitoring audits at the INSS since its creation in 2003, Eliane stated that there are no available records of inspections of Contag in the period prior to 2016. She emphasized, however, that there was never a decision to refrain from auditing agreements, but acknowledged limitations on access to historical databases.

In addition to Contag, she detailed the situation of other entities that had agreements suspended in 2019, following allegations of irregularities. According to her, the agreements had been signed between 2014 and 2017: Centrap (2015) Abasp (2016) Asbap (2014)

• Anaps (2017, later transformed into Abraps)

In April, when the INSS fraud scandal was revealed, Contag denied any wrongdoing and said that the discounts were authorized by members and that the requests for unblocking were made due to obstacles created by a 2020 decree, which began requiring prior authorization.

Gazeta do Povo contacted the INSS (National Institute of Social Security) to seek a response from the federal agency regarding the CGU director's statements, but had not received a response by the time this article was published. The forum remains open for comments.